Six hours of Continuing Education, a day with 120 of my colleagues. As a “seasoned practitioner,” these days are now mostly review. I try to find at least one new thing to learn. We started with the Secure Act, which changed how retirement accounts are transferred at death and the tax implications for heirs. It is complicated, but for the readers of my emails, what you need to know is that we need to talk about your retirement accounts.
Proposition 19, Property Taxes, and Proposition 13: The important thing you need to know is that the low property taxes from Prop 13 only pass to heirs when a child lives in the home of the parent. The MOST important thing is that you need to send in paperwork to the Assessor within 90 days of death. If a loved one has passed away, give me a call.
The next talk was about GUNS, guns left behind at death, and guns and incapacity. Guns can be problematic. Some guns were legal when purchased but are not legal today, and there are rules about who can receive them. Bottom line, you can’t just bring them to the police station. They need to be handled properly, and if you want to leave them to someone, you need to talk to your Estate Planning Attorney.
Lastly, we talked about expected changes as the current exemption of over 12 million per person will sunset in 2025. Those with large estates can plan now to use the current exemption. For those of you with more modest estates, you may be impacted too. So stay tuned to find out if Estate Taxes are back in your future.
